Thursday, 20 October 2016

Labour Weekend Ramble

Yes, sorry to spoil your routine but this week it’s a Thursday Morning Ramble. It’s a Thursday Morning Ramble because I had a lot of things I still wanted to present, and with a long weekend starting tomorrow for some of us, too little time to present them otherwise. So let’s go…

“The second three years of the Supercity could be called the ‘profligate’ years. Within a few days of the 2013 election Len Brown became a lame duck second term mayor after his philandering became public. With no possibility of a third term Brown decided he must leave a ‘legacy’ and so went on a spending binge. This forced up rates to an unsustainable level, created a debt mountain, and bloated the bureaucracy. As a result, Goff’s promises to spend even more on new projects are simply untenable. When coupled with a majority of his Councillors pledging fiscal responsibility for the next three years, it leaves Goff with little room to manoeuvre [If he and they are to keep their promises – Ed.]”Auckland’s profligate years leave Goff with little room to manoeuvre – JO HOLMES BLOG

“An important piece of work. Inequality is important. Measured inequality in NZ has been much smaller than people think. It would not have increased if it had not been for the self inflicted wound of our house prices.That of course is now acknowledged even by the Greens and Labour to be the consequence of the RMA and council power and incentives. “They removed property owners’ power to intensify spontaneously as all great cities and vibrant towns once could.” ~ Stephen FranksThe Inequality Paradox: Why inequality matters even though it has barely changed – NZ INITIATIVE

“A weekend police survey in Hamilton discovered only two beggars were actually homeless and the others were bringing props and even dogs to help them appear poor. “The survey found only two of the 15 beggars were homeless. The remaining 13 had brought duvet covers, cardboard signs and even sickly looking pets to give the impression they were living on the streets.”Police find only two beggars on Hamilton streets are homeless – NZ HERALD

“Many Americans, not just conservatives, will cast essentially negative ballots. The only real argument for Hillary Clinton is that she is not Donald Trump . The only real argument for Donald Trump is that he is not Hillary Clinton. Neither argument is convincing. If someone is not fit for office, it doesn't matter that someone else may be even worse.”How should a conservative vote? – Daniel Hannan, WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“Dear Mr. Trump: “It is hard—perhaps impossible—to calculate the damage that you have done to the United States and its people, and the people of the world. The situation that the United States faces today is one of great uncertainty at home and great peril abroad.”An Open Letter to Trump – Richard Epstein, HOOVER INSTITUTION

“"Mrs Clinton has been exposed to have no core, to be someone who constantly changes her position to maximise political gain. Leaked speeches prove that she has two positions (public and private) on banks; two positions on the wealthy; two positions on borders; two positions on energy.... “Voters might not know any of this, because while both presidential candidates have plenty to answer for, the press has focused solely on taking out Mr Trump. And the press is doing a diligent job of it."Media is burying new details on Hillary Clinton’s record – Kimberley Strassel, THE AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS REVIEW

“The amazing thing about America? Most people have the right emotional reaction: ‘Throw the bums out.’ But they have the wrong idea. Their idea is that government will protect and take care of them. Actually, that is the proper role of government when it comes to purse snatchers, identity stealers, computer hackers, car thieves and rapists/murderers. It’s also the proper role of the national government when it comes to criminal spies, international secret-stealers, terrorists and invading armies. But it’s NOT the role of government to feed, clothe, hospitalise, educate and provide all the creature comforts of life for us. Government cannot do these things, and should not try. “The fact that this no longer occurs to most Americans is why the two major candidates – whomever they are – disappoint us every single time. Americans sense that neither Trump nor Clinton have the answer. But they don’t have the willingness or ability to define the right answer. And most are unwilling to let go of their fantasy that government somehow can and should feed, clothe, educate, provide creature comforts and otherwise take care of them.”Why Don't We Have Better Candidates? - Michael Hurd, LIVING RESOURCES CENTER

“President Nicolás Maduro’s government has begun dismantling price controls… ‘I used to look for anything, whatever was going, even if it meant getting in line the day before,” she said. “I haven’t had to line up for two months now.”"Venezuela Backs Away From Price Controls as Citizens Go Hungry - WALL STREET JOURNAL

“Sustained foreign aid, such as rice, undermines markets and drives many local producers out of business, creating more dependency on aid.”The Curse of Charity in Haiti - Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WALL STREET JOURNAL

“If we eliminate paradoxes and contradictions like public or government “ownership,” then we will allow people to fix problems associated with those things. Let the market and economics reign supreme and let entrepreneurs solve the issues that present themselves.”Privately Owned Roads Would End Congestion – FEE

If young followers of the Mises Institute actually read what Ludwig Von Mises said about anarchy, their heads would explode.Mises on Anarchism: Five Quotations – STEPHEN HICKS

“So what I am about to say this evening about the state of climate science is not in any sense anti-science. It is anti the distortion and betrayal of science… “Why do I think the risk from global warming is being exaggerated? For four principal reasons. 1. All environmental predictions of doom always are; 2. the models have been consistently wrong for more than 30 years; 3. the best evidence indicates that climate sensitivity is relatively low; 4. the climate science establishment has a vested interest in alarm. “I will come to those four points in a moment. But first I want to talk about global greening, the gradual, but large, increase in green vegetation on the planet…the most momentous [yet largely unreported] discoveries of recent years and one that transforms the scientific background to climate policy”Globl Warming versus Global Greening – Matt Ridley, GWPF

“Should Chris Wallace ask our presidential candidates about climate change? Absolutely, but only as part of a broader discussion of the role of fossil fuels in America’s energy future. “’Climate change’ — more precisely, man-made warming — is a side effect of using fossil fuels for cheap, plentiful, reliable energy. To ask candidates to address climate change without addressing the unique benefits of fossil fuels is like asking the candidates to address vaccine side effects without addressing the unique benefits of vaccines.”Warming is mild and manageable: Opposing view – Alex Epstein, USA TODAY

“Elinor C. Ostrom, the first female Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, believed that people are perfectly capable of taking control of decisions that affect their lives, without external authorities imposing rules. Her extensive fieldwork focused on how people interact with ecosystems, such as forests, fisheries and irrigation systems, while maintaining the long-term sustainability of these resources.”Are ordinary people able to self-organise? – Nobel Perspectives, UBS

“All the highest concentrations are downwind of warm water… There is little or no significant excess CO2 above or downwind of major population centres such as Western Europe or the North Eastern USA.”Evidence that Oceans not Man control CO2 emissions – Stephen Wilde, NEW CLIMATE MODEL

“’How race complicates the way we view Haiti and the environment.’ … He had discovered a rarity in today’s world: a good-news environmental story in one of the planet’s poorest countries [Haiti]. But then he had a troubling thought: 'People won’t like this.'”One of the most repeated facts about Haiti is a lie – NEWS.VICE.COM

"[W]e have to reject the false alternative of 'climate change believer' or 'climate change denier' and become 'climate thinkers'—people who think carefully about the magnitude of man-made warming and compare it with the unique benefits of fossil fuels."Candidates who are climate thinkers will conclude that man-made warming is mild and manageable, not runaway and catastrophic. And thus they will conclude that fossil fuels should be liberated, not restricted."~ Alex Epstein, ‘Warming is mild and manageable: Opposing view;

“Years ago, experts in the hardware industry would have had more sympathy for Sherman. Now, no one does—not even Sherman himself. While discussions of intellectual property in China’s manufacturing centers once focused on how brands and investors could protect their designs from China’s rapacious copycats, things have changed. Startups and foreign manufacturers are embracing a new reality—someone in China is going to make a knockoff of your unique invention, almost immediately. All any company or entrepreneur can do is prepare for it.”Your brilliant Kickstarter idea could be on sale in China before you’ve even finished funding it – QZ.COM

“Think about how little you know about the politics, race, gender, or even nationality of the person who makes the bread you buy. You don't know because you don't care. What you care about is getting the best deal on bread.”The Free Market Wins against Discrimination – David R. Henderson, FEE

“In countless fields and by innumerable devices we see the deliberate contrivance of scarcities, the abolition of which would surely enable the dissolution of what we to-day regard as physical poverty.”~ William Hutt, from his book Economists and the Public, quoted by Don Boundreaux at Cafe Hayek

"We allowed economics to be lost when we decided it was too complicated and too technical for intelligent laypeople to understand."How We Lost Economics – Jeff Desit, MISES WIRE

“The Federal Reserve is, at last, acknowledging at top levels that its economists are completely baffled, its recovery is failing, that the Fed cannot raise interest and may even have to heat up its stimulants … or we may end up with a permanently scarred and stagnant economy.”Federal Reserve Admits it Never Knew What it was Doing – THE GREAT RECESSION BLOG

Who would've guessed that the Fed's assessment of human behaviour might be flawed … ?

"Strip away the titles of 'capitalism' and 'socialism', and the responses become drastically different. A 2015 Reason-Rupe poll found that college-aged respondents are far more supportive of a 'free-market system' (72%) than they are of a 'government-managed economy' (49%). In reality, millennials—regardless of party or ideology—have arrived at a surprising consensus: We support free markets, are very much unhappy with the current state of affairs, and are still looking for change."Millennials vs. Mutant Capitalism – Christopher Koopman, WALL STREET JOURNAL

“I will argue that the anti-liberalism is much deeper in Kant’s philosophy than the liberalism. That means saying something about the ringlingly liberal-sounding principles that are indeed integral to Kant’s philosophy. That something is this: One must always interpret a comprehensive philosopher’s remarks on applied matters in the context of his philosophical system.”Does Kant Have a Place in Classical Liberalism? – Stephen Hicks, CATO

““In Aristotle’s eyes, ethics does not begin with thinking of others; it begins with oneself. The reason is that every human being faces the task of learning how to live, how to be a human being, just as he has to learn how to walk or to talk. No one can be truly human, can live and act as a rational man, without first going through the difficult and often painful business of acquiring the intellectual and moral virtues, and then, having acquired them, actually exercising them in the concrete, but tricky, business of living.” ~ Henry B. Veatch in Rational Man: A Modern Interpretation of Aristotelian Ethics, quoted in …The Perfectionist Turn, by Douglas Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen – AMAZON

“Today's schools teach students to be comfortable bandying about abstractions they don't understand and opinions they can't validate… Inversions of hierarchy turn kids into passive parrots able to recite - and unable to think. “To say that knowledge is hierarchical means that there is a necessary order to its acquisition. Before you can learn calculus, you must learn algebra; before you can learn algebra, you must know arithmetic. This fact, that knowledge—to be real, meaningful knowledge—must be gained in a specific order is generally understood in the subject of math, but is woefully neglected in many other areas. The most abstract principles of science are taught as bolts from the blue to be memorized, with no presentation of the observations and intermediate principles that led to their discovery and that render them meaningful. Controversial political events are discussed and analyzed when students do not have the knowledge of history that would make an informed, intelligent judgment possible. These rampant inversions of the hierarchy of knowledge are turning children into passive parrots able to recite abstract formulas—and unable to think. If we want our children to be truly educated, to have a vast store of crucial knowledge that they grasp deeply and independently, then education must be radically reconceived with respect for the hierarchy of knowledge.”Shop – Lisa Van Damme, VAN DAMME ACADEMY

If you’re looking for a fun-filled concert experience, then get ye to one of Operatunity’s touring Mario Lanza afternoons. Still half of the country left to entertain … !The Great Mario Lanza – OPERATUNITY

“And the problem? These designs are created by brain dead extroverted managers who want to inflict their demented views of cognition onto those who actually need to focus and think.”Programmers really hate open floor plans – QZ.COM

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